The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Public hearing in investigation of capsized ship set to begin today
Goal: Find how it happened, how to prevent another one.
A public hearing in the investigation of the Golden Ray, the capsized car carrier in St. Simons Sound, is set to begin today. The massive cargo ship has remained partially submerged on its side since Sept. 8, 2019, when it ran aground just after leaving the Port of Brunswick.
Operations to cut the vessel in pieces and remove it and its cargo of about 4,200 vehicles from the waterway have been suspended until the first week of October.
The hearing, conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard, National Transportation
The state ethics commission is investigating a Gwinnett candidate for district attorney, after her opponent accused her of campaigning on county time and using county resources.
David Emadi, the executive secretary of the ethics commission, confirmed the investigation into Patsy Austin-Gatson, the Democratic nominee for DA. He said he could provide no other information about the investigation, which was initiated following a complaint by the incumbent Republican district attorney, Danny Porter, who is running for reelection.
Porter said he had heard rumors for months that Austin-Gatson and Curtis Clemons, who was running for sheriff, were using county resources to create, edit, print and deliver campaign materials. Both Austin-Gatson and Clemons work in the county solicitor’s office. So does Austin-Gatson’s husband, Travis Gatson, who was also accused of impropriety.
But Porter didn’t file a complaint until this week, when he learned of an incident in Hall County that was documented by an investigator in the solicitor’s office there. The investigator, Andrew Ledbetter, wrote in an incident report that Gatson was in Hall County to obtain a search warrant when he handed everyone in the room a business card with his wife’s picture on it and said the campaign “could use all of the support they could get.”
“That’s a clear violation of the campaign